For forty days and forty nights, my trail cameras recorded videos and photos of jungle animals. I checked the cameras at least weekly starting in mid January 2021. The videos of the rainforest animals were outstanding! Trail camera technology has come a long ways since we started doing this back in 2010. This video will premier on Saturday February 20, so if the link is funky, you will now why.
The rare greater Grison (Galictis vittata) shuffles through the rainforest on a trail camera in Costa Rica! Grison look just like honey badgers and are just as fierce.
A Tayra (Eira barbara) runs off with a papaya on a trail camera in Costa Rica!
A Jaguarundi(Herpailurus yagouaroundi) peers over a fallen tree
Super Rare....Super Important---The Rufous Tree Rat
I had this blog written and ready to publish last week, then we got some really exciting news. We identified one of the rarest mammals in Costa Rica on one of our cameras! How rare? We are likely one of about five sightings.
This may be the lowest recorded sighting of the arboreal Rufous Tree Rat at less than 2 meters above ground.
Short ears and black tail are just a few of the distinguishing characteristics of Diplomys labilis.
When I could not find the above rat in my field guide, I recalled that an arboreal rat had recently been discovered living in Costa Rica…I looked into a Tico Times story about Costa Rica's 250 mammal species . The Rufous Tree Rat was only discovered to be in Costa Rica in June of 2015. I sent images via email to the researcher mentioned, José Ramírez, with images of our buddy. Late Friday afternoon he confirmed, with 90% certainty and 100% enthusiasm, that it is indeed the Rufous Tree Rat. Here is his description of the finding Here is his description of the finding.
I was later contacted by Naturalist Jim Córdoba_Alfara, who actually photographed the Rufous Tree rat for the first time in Costa Rica at La Tarde Lodge on the Osa Peninsula. He confirmed our sighting and is including our project’s images in an upcoming paper about this understudied and poorly known rodent’s natural history. While called an arboreal or Tree Rat, the the Rufous Tree Rat and its close cousins are more closely related to guinea pigs and chinchillas of South America.(via Canopy Family Website)
Other New Visitors
While not a true Rainforest carnivore, the Coyote is doing well in Costa Rica
The other new visitor is none other than the wily Coyote. Despite having 15 camera traps throughout the forest it never appeared on any cameras. I just happened to see it run past one of the cabins so I set up a camera and it was a nearly a daily visitor. We also found some droppings and realized that it was probably feeding on iguanas or basilisk lizards. Jaguars, Pumas, and man are the coyotes only known predators in Costa Rica.
My what a big tail you have!
Mexican Mouse Opossum
One critter that we have suspected of being here is the Mexican Mouse Opossum. Well we finally got a good enough image to properly identify it. They are some of the smallest marsupials in the New World.
We were also visited by the Neotropical River Otter again. This time it was actually in the water and was probably looking for freshwater shrimp. Pollution and habitat loss are two factors that have led to the Otter's decline in the last few years. THESE VIDEOS ARE BETTER IF YOU MAXIMIZE YOUR SCREEN
The other rare mammal that we saw was the Greater Grison. These small mustelids (Weasel Family) run around the forest and are rarely seen by people. We are catching more of them on camera traps. We were fortunate to have a short video and a nice clear picture of one.
A Good Mother
It has also been a few years since we have captured good images/video of an Ocelot and her cub. From October through our last visit in March, we saw them on a regular basis in all parts of the forest. I compiled a short clip of their wanderings.
The young ocelot caught perhaps her first mouse!
It was just a matter of time...
When we started this project years ago, Aida told us that it was not
uncommon to see naked people out in the woods. Sure enough, we got
several video clips of an amorous encounter of this gentleman and his lady friend!
Up the creek.
Eleanor and Jimmy cross the river after we set two cameras in a remote location.
We teamed up with Osa Conservation for the largest
Camera Trap project in Central America. They created a grid with 120
squares(240 cameras, 1,920 AA batteries) over the Osa Region of the Golfo Dulce. Each Square has two
opposing cameras. The study will run for 90 days.
Finca Green Eight(Ocho Verde) represented by the purple squares in the red oval.
The data collected will
assess the health of the endangered Jaguar population, their prey, and
their activity in vital corridors throughout the regions of Costa Rica.
We (OchoVerde) were responsible for 5 squares(10 cameras). Exciting news will be
coming from this research over the coming months. Here is the link about
what we’ve done so far .Click here to learn more about this amazing project.
Wireless Cameras Update
Our five wireless cameras continue to send us email images from over 3000 miles away. Of course, you can follow along on the Zoological Society of London's Instant Wild Page. Or better yet, sponsor your own wireless camera in Costa Rica and get these remarkable animals send directly to you. EMAIL ME if you would like to do this!
We have also been working with Osa Conservation for almost two years to get wireless cameras working out in the Osa Peninsula near Corcovado National park. They finally received a wireless network out there. I was apparently able to crack the code in order to get their network up and running. We had some great help from a new wireless camera company called Barn Owl. It seems as if it is only matter of time before we get images of a Jaguar!
Diquís Spheres
Capuchin Monkey and an ancient sphere.
An ancient indigenous tribe called the Diquís were famous for their carved stone spheres. Nobody really knows how and why these were carved, but they were rolled up creeks to various places in Southern Costa Rica. Many have been removed for museums or stolen for private homes, there is even one rumored to be in a yard in Charleston...
We were presented with an opportunity to visit a site literally right down the road from Ocho Verde where several of these spheres are located. We placed a wireless camera on the property and mysteriously the 12 new lithium batteries died before one photo could be taken. I eventually moved it to another spot where it seems to be functioning. It is sending about 60% of its pictures.
I put one of our trusty white flash cameras down by the creek and got some outstanding images.
Mysterious Ocelot and a Mossy Sphere
What in the hell is it?
Our cameras take great pictures, but sometimes we just cannot figure out exactly what is going on. We have two cases that we would like to share here. The first is this strange apparent beam of light shooting across the frame. It could be an insect, but at 5:36 am it is pretty dark at this place.
Shutter speed is 1/122 of a second.
Whatever it is seems to be traveling very fast.
The second mystery image involved what I think is a rather large animal.
1:20am in the center right of frame.
Mystery animal for sure.
I would certainly say that it is dog sized, but I cannot figure out how or why it has those parallel lines running across its body and legs. I would guess camera malfunction, but they appear to be behind the leaves as well.
If you have a guess on that these are, please email me or leave a comment below. Thanks.
Bonus Time
As if this blog wasn't long enough...
Hognose Skunk on the trail of a mate.
Unidentified Bat flies over the Famous Rock
Ocelot on Log via the wireless camera.
In the one that got away category...It would have been a beautiful Jaguarundi shot!
Supporting us.
Those of you that wish to support our efforts can do so in several ways. You can always send us a contribution via snail mail or though PAYPAL.
You can always support us by subscribing, watching, and sharing our videos on YouTube. For evry thousand vies, we get a few pennies and this does add up over the years.
Sooooo…..if you could subscribe to our channel and share our videos it would be great! Here is a handy button. It is that easy!
Because you never know what will look into the camera.
Now that I have your attention.....
You may disregard that monkey above...yep...easier said than done. That morning in mid-January when I clicked on what I though was a just another capuchin monkey video, only to discover this guy looking into the camera... Yikes! Well it was just one of 6000 images that we had to go through after leaving the camera for 5 plus months. We were fortunate to see 3 new and rare species along with our usual mammal species.
Up the creek
The Gaea camera has been always been placed above the waterfall to capture animals that visited the creek. The previous location, looking at the giant log, was replaced as the old log had decayed and washed away. We see more strangers in this area than another, and this cache of images was no exception.
Fortunately the guys with rifles only spent 4-5 minutes in this area before leaving empty handed.
Moments before these hunter passed by we had seen a paca go by, and an hour after the hunter left, the paca came by again. So we were glad it was safe.
We don't see many armadillos on the property, but we got a picture of these two enjoying the stream.
I by passed the next photo several times and considered deleting it since I saw no animal. However, I did see something in the picture.
Several close up looks later, we determined that it was a very rare mammal that is seldom seen in camera traps. It is a Greater Grison. They are members of the weasel family and are very much like badgers. They have a black mask beginning at their eyes which throws your perception off if you have never seen one before--and I had not. Our friends over in the Osa peninsula got this handsome pair of Grisons last fall on his camera trap.
Grisons wandering in the jungle.--Osa Conservation image
Here is the close up of our Grison:
We have since placed a second camera up in this area to see if we can spot anymore Grison activity during the next few months.
Predation
We don't see much of it, but when we do it is pretty exciting. In the nearly 100,000 images we have had over the last two and half years, we have only seen a handful of animals with prey: ocelot with a rice rat, the tayra with iguana, and many agoutis with nuts. We were very interested when this image came via email from one of the wireless cameras and into the Instant Wild webpage in London. It appeared to be a large raptor having a face off with a normally arboreal woolly possum.
The wireless camera records two pictures, but sends only the second image. Here is what the first shot revealed:
It was a battle between the opossum and this raptor with yellow legs. There were no more images of this from the wireless camera or the companion cameras nearby. We do know that woolly opossums are very fierce when cornered.
Deadfall
One of the things that we have learned is that many animals like to use fallen trees a pathways through the forest.
Curassow hen crosses a small ravine.
Tamandua or ant eater on the prowl.
This observation has led us to aim more cameras towards fallen trees and vines to hopefully target animals more accurately.
Collateral Benefit
The above image is a collared peccary. They have not seen peccaries above Golfito in many many years. Even though the above image is not from our cameras, our project inspired this land owner/friend to place a camera trap in the forest behind their home. This site is only 3.5 miles from our property. There are not many corridors for peccaries to travel, but with Costa Rican ban on sport hunting, there is a chance the peccaries can cross the highway and continue to repopulate forested lands.
Mouse Opossum
The second new species(for us) that we believe that we have caught on camera is another one of the arboreal opossums. In addition to the woolly opossum there is a tiny Mouse opossum that we have had glimpses of coming down from trees. We hope to have some images up soon.
Long Tailed Cat
Finally, we can add another cat species to our list. The Margay is more of a tree dweller than is the ocelot. It is also a bit smaller and has a longer tail in respect to body size. They do not adapt to habitat loss as well as the ocelot and need undisturbed forest. We only have one clip from mid January and we have incorporated it into this short video on the cats we have seen the past 6 months. The Margay shows up in the intro and again at the very end of the clip. There are plenty of close ups of ocelots and you can really see how short their tails are compared to the tail of the Margay.
Maximize the screen size to see the video better.
MARGAY UPDATE 2/27/16
Theexcitement of realizing that we do have a margay on the property, led me to quickly look over some other ocelot pictures and videos. I am often so consumed and focused on plowing through 4-5 months of images that I often pay little attention to what we actually record during our time in Costa Rica. This was exactly the case with the video below:
Back in July during our visit, I downloaded thisquick cat video and discounted it as a young ocelot. The slight body and head, long tail and 'closed' rosettes actually make this a relatively easy ID.
Current Challenge
Operating a camera trap project this size alone is rewarding but challenging. The countless hours spent looking through images, placing cameras amid mosquito and ant bites in sweltering heat, is certainly a labor of love. What is most difficult is the financial challenge. So far we have been fortunate in that camera failures have been mostly covered by warranty but our 2 year grace period on the original cameras is running out. The cost of AA lithium batteries has continued to increase. With the rare advantage of real time images sent from the wireless cameras, we now have data plan costs. Vamos Rental Cars in Costa Rica and HCO-Outdoors Cameras have been instrumental in helping to defray some ongoing costs of batteries and cameras. Friends and family members help us a great deal as well in keeping our U.S. pets safe and well fed. Thanks to all of them.
If you would like to offer support to our project you can do so in several ways. The easiest is by clicking on this paypal link:
You can also contact us via email at OchoVerde@gmail.com to receive mailing instructions for a personal check/supplies.
Finally,you can go to one of the online websites, Amazon or eBay to purchase AA Lithium batteries directly from them and have them sent to our home in Charleston, SC. Contact us for the address.
Our images have become favorites across the globe via the Zoological Society of London's Instant Wild app and webpage!
Thanks
Our next update will feature BIRDS in the camera traps!
